the organization has many problems.
certain doctrines are problematic.
the men who run the organizaion have issues.
I left because it was all lies. It doesn't get simpler than that to me.
Since leaving, I really learned better how they damage/destroy lives. So that has taken over as my biggest problem with them.
Whether it is shunning and dividing families or failing to protect children or letting people die for the doctrine, to me those aren't worth arguing over which is biggest. They are nothing but lies and they damage or destroy lives.
another one.. https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/30810834/church-elder-is-jailed-over-sex-abuse/.
a jehovah’s witness elder who sexually assaulted two vulnerable teenagers he met through the church was sentenced to three years jail yesterday over the “destructive” abuse.. david frank pople, 68, met the boys through the safety bay congregation of the church and assaulted them between 1989 and 1996.. one of the teens reported the sexual assaults to elders in 1997 but police were not made aware of the abuse until he filed a police report in 2014.pople was forcibly ejected from the church for being “insufficiently repentant” in 1997 and readmitted the following year at his request.. district court judge troy sweeney accepted pople was genuinely remorseful but said he had interfered with his victims’ natural maturing process in a “very destructive way”.“a message must be sent that child abuse is abhorrent and will not be tolerated by any civilised society,” she said.“they were vulnerable because they were young and because you were a church elder and their boss.”.
when pople admitted assaulting one of the boys during a conversation with an elder in the 1990s, he was told a judicial committee would be formed to deal with the issue.the elders spoke to pople in an apparent attempt to determine his level of remorse and later sent a letter to certain members of the congregation explaining in great detail why he had been ejected.. pople was in his 40s when he assaulted the boys at work, on his yacht and in his shoalwater home.he was close friends with the parents of his first victim and had helped the second victim with his bible studies.. defence lawyer nick scerri told the court pople was candid with the leadership of the church and made “very frank admissions” about some aspects of the offending in 1997.he said his client has been living three lives and was “deeply unhappy” when he assaulted the boys.“he had the life of the family man, the father, the husband,” mr scerri said.
It sounds like Pople was ready to face the law in 1997 when he was reported to the elders, but this self-protective cult just dealt with it as an internal matter.
If I am reading it right, the real scum dirt bags are the elders that handled the matter.
have a look: jwstuff.org [email protected].
and this isn't idolatry?
knorr and franz must be spinning in their graves..... .
Is this the hypnotism tie clip?
i mean this with all due respect, i would like to hear from genuine people who think jw have it wrong and then what is the truth?.
im not talking about silly little quibbles here and there.. is jehovah real?
the the bible is word?
If I am reading this thread right (and I may not be because I lost interest in the standard minutia of so many pages) the thought is that after studying the Watchtower's version of the Bible and Watchtower's explanation of how to apply the Bible, the original poster is simply applying the No True Scotsman logic fallicy to any counter-argument. (Google "wiki no true scotsman".)
There was excellent thoughts in the first several pages to help. I assume there were more excellent thoughts in the pages after that.
found this interesting article in the december 2015 issue of the australasian science journal, on whether it might be possible to change a person's beliefs by stimulating their brain via transcranial magnetic stimulation (tms).. "the study by us and uk researchers recruited 38 undergraduate students, with each reporting they held significant religious beliefs and conservative political views.
participants in the experimental condition received tms to the pmfc for a period of 40 seconds, a process that reduces neural activity in this region for up to an hour.
control participants underwent a similar process, but with a low level of tms that has no effect on the functioning of the pmfc.. the researchers found that those who had received tms reported significantly less conviction in their beliefs concerning god, angels and heaven following a reminder of death than those in the non-tms control group.
imagine you're a mentally out, physically in, awake jw who still attend meetings and occasionally do a little door-to-door perfunctory service just to please the still-in spouse and keep the elders off your back while you slowly and subtly try to free your spouse of the cult.
you're also a vociferous online critic of the jw organization and its harmful policies and false teachings.
one day while out doing your occasional perfunctory door-to-door service with a still-in jw, you knock on a door and the householder comes out and says:.
It's hard to imagine being the fake self and hearing praise for the genuine self.
I have met a few people who said that reading my book made a difference for them, and I was totally humbled, nearly speechless at their words. One said, "I read your book first while still in, before anything from Ray Franz or the like, and it allowed me to keep reading others." Another was already out, but said "I read excerpts from your book to my JW-wife because it's not about doctrine." A coworker's wife said she gave her copy of my book to a young JW girl questioning the religion of her parents and didn't know if she should keep questioning. The coworker's wife said it made her go to the internet and she will avoid baptism and get out when she moves out of her parents' home.
So I have to think in your fictional scenario, I would snicker and hold back "THAT'S AWESOME!"
happy friday to all!.
i haven't been to a meeting for maybe 10 years.
i only know what's happening nowadays from the experiences i read here or the internet in general.. anyway, on to the topic: i started attending meetings at the age of 7. as a kid, the only thing i looked forward to at the assemblies (circuit/district) was walking around veteran's stadium (philadelphia district convention) during intermission, hanging with friends, looking at girls (as i got a little older) and trying to have enough tickets to get pizza!.
Eventually, to save money, the WTBTS decided to have everyone BYO food (making like the decision was to benefit the people). They also tied to this the "rule": Do not go to public vendors and buy your lunch. Bring your own! Me thinks this was because, if you spend money on food, you will donate less to the Society.
When WTS stopped "selling" food because it might be considered a profit that was taxable to the government, they hoped the members would donate enough money to still keep offering the food (which was a huge cash cow for them). Well, the members did not. So food was done away with.
The reason they insisted so heavily that people bring their own food was that many stadiums/auditoriums had kitchens and venders and wanted to open these during the JW events, but Watchtower said "Our people would not use your venders, they are there to be among their brothers and sisters and would rather bring their own." Really, it was as you say- money going to the vender would not make it into the box. Could you imagine the pizza, hot dog, beer, venders being open during an assembly?
By the time I was fully awake, I attended one District Assembly still as an elder and barely paid attention to anything said but kept busy as an attendant. I couldn't imagine sitting there for even a public talk now, without laughing out loud at the logic flaws and comedy of misunderstood conceptions.
i am on a pension, so i could not afford to pay for a psychologist, but my good doctor referred me to a free clinic for people on a low income, for my anxiety and depression, so i have finally got my first appointment with a psychologist since i started my fade, so where do i start trying to explain the mental trauma i feel as a fading jw?
i would appreciate your advice.
simple .
after being a jw for 25 years and keeping my true thoughts and feeling all bottled up and putting on the fake kingdom smile for so long i feel that my brain will explode when i finally let it all out. i feel sorry for the poor psych
first and foremost, thank you so much to so many of you who have reached out to me over the past few days since my post on sunday.
i'm not totally in the best mental state, however, i do have a very small amount of people that i can lean on for support.
i relayed my feelings to a friend (my only friend, really), who took the initiative to inform my family.
As another ex-elder, I agree with everything leaving_quietly says on page 2. I want to add that if they don't reinstate after the second letter, feel free to submit one every month and they will cave in sooner.
Don't bother with the money at all, no elders are likely to ever ever notice it.
When they reinstate, they will impose restrictions on you- withhold commenting and giving talks at the hall (or whatever they do with sisters at the CLAM now). You don't ever need to worry about getting such privileges back. As a matter of fact, if you are reinstated for the sake of family, you can feel free to miss any (or even ALL) meetings after that. You are golden and they can't make you progress as a "publisher" or anything. I wouldn't bother with trying to keep up any pretenses as far as the elders go after reinstatement, I would just avoid them. If you decide you need to attend some meetings because of family, just always tell the elders that you are fine and, "no, don't need to talk, bye."
tonight my dl was posted by hand by my husband (a worldly guy).
i had the luxury of being at work distracted whilst he posted it.
i have been baptised for just over 2 years and studied since 2010. i couldn't take it anymore, not just the zealous dislike/disgust for 'people in the world' (this includes my husband and 99% of my family btw) but the obvious.... the investigations into child sexual abuse.
